


Bop to the Top

by localspacelesbian



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, carrie might have a crush on julie, kenny ortega cinematic universe, wlw/mlm solidarity
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-09
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:08:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26906398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/localspacelesbian/pseuds/localspacelesbian
Summary: After the performance at the Orpheum, Carrie decides to talk to Julie. Instead, she makes a new friend.
Relationships: Alex & Carrie Wilson
Comments: 70
Kudos: 281





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I decided to post the first chapter of this even though i'm not really sure where it's going, which i don't usually do. i'll try my best to finish it

_‘Your performance the other day was really good.’ Ugh no, that sounds dumb._ _‘I’m sor-’_ Carrie shook her head and sighed as she continued pacing in front of the Molina house. Maybe this was a dumb idea. She should just go home and forget she even came over here.

She was about to do just that when the sound of drumming coming from the garage made her pause. Expecting the rest of the band to join in, she listened for a minute, but they never did. Intrigued, she found herself walking toward the sound.

She paused for a second when she reached the door, her breath catching in her throat as she remembered the last time she’d been in the studio. She shook her head, pushing the memory down, and stood up on her toes to look through the window. There was only one person in there. She recognized him as the drummer from Julie’s band.

_ That’s weird. _ Julie said her bandmates didn’t live around here, that they were from Sweden or something. So why was he here? And why was he practicing alone? He was good though, so Carrie found herself continuing to watch. The door was open, so she slipped in without him noticing, and when he finished, she started clapping.

He looked up at her, startled. He pushed his hair out of his eyes and stood up slowly. He walked around the drumset, nervously twisting his drumsticks in his hands as he approached her. She followed him with his eyes as she waited for him to say something. Maybe she shouldn’t have announced her presence in the first place. Maybe she should have just left. But there was no going back now, so she did what she did best; she pretended like she knew exactly what she was doing. She crossed her arms in front of her chest.

“You can see me.”

Carrie raised her eyebrow. Ok… so that’s not what she was expecting him to say. “Uh, yeah. You’re standing right in front of me.”

He nodded, looking down for a second and then back up at her. “Right. Um, what are you doing here?”

She could ask him the same question. But she didn’t. Instead she just nodded slowly, trying not to show her nerves. “I was looking for Julie. Is she here?”

He shook his head, and she did her best to hide her sigh of relief. “No, it’s just me.”

She nodded. “Right.” She looked around. “So, what are you doing here alone then? You don’t live here, do you?”

He shook his head, smiling slightly to himself as if laughing at a joke she wasn’t in on. “No, I don’t. I’m just waiting for Julie to get back.”

Carrie nodded again. “Right. Well, when she does, can you tell her-” she stopped herself. “Actually, you don’t need to tell her anything. I’m just gonna…” She trailed off and started to turn around.

She felt a hand on her wrist, even though she was sure he hadn’t been close enough to reach her that quickly. “Wait, Carrie.”

She turned back and raised an eyebrow at him until he dropped her hand, looking apologetic. Maybe she shouldn’t be surprised that he knew her name (After all, who doesn’t?), but a small voice in the back of her head was practically shouting,  _ ‘Julie talks about you!’ _ and her heartbeat picked up a bit. She internally beat that voice back with a broom. She looked at him expectantly, trying to convey that she was annoyed, and he better tell her what he wants right now, damn it.

“Are you ok?”

He sure had a habit of surprising her, huh. It took her a second to respond. She nodded and forced a smile on her face. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

He nodded, but she wasn’t sure he believed her.

“Just, don’t tell Julie I was here?”

He nodded again. “Yeah, of course.” She started to turn away again, but he stopped her once more. “Hey, Carrie?” He seemed a little nervous. “Um, I really like your music.”

She smiled, this time more genuinely. “Really? It doesn’t seem like your style.” It was quite a bit different from the music his band played.

He just shrugged. “I have layers.” She laughed. “I mean, I love the stuff we play of course, but yours is so much fun. And it’s not like I can really dance from behind my drumset.” He gestured behind him to said drumset.

“You like to dance?”

He smiled and did one of her moves from  _ All Eyes On Me _ , ending with a little spin.

She laughed. “Not bad…” She frowned when she realized she still didn’t know his name.

He held out his hand. “Oh. Alex.”

She shook his hand, smiling. “Alex. Now, I should really get going, but I’ll see you around.” She was surprised by how much she hoped that was true. They both smiled at each other once more before she turned around and finally left the studio. She was still smiling as she drove home. Something about that boy intrigued her, and it wasn’t just that he was a part of Julie’s weird hologram band.


	2. Chapter 2

Alex heard Reggie and Luke poof into the garage behind him and turned around.

“Hey, you ok, man?” Luke asked.

“Yeah, you look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Reggie joked.

Luke rolled his eyes and hit Reggie lightly on the chest before looking back at Alex in concern.

Alex hesitated for a second. He wanted to tell them what had just happened. Carrie could see him! She could shake his hand! (Which was pretty lucky, since he’d almost forgotten until it was too late that _ she shouldn’t be able to do that. _ ) And he had no idea why. Julie could touch them now (most of the time), but they were pretty sure no one else could. Granted, they hadn’t had a chance to test it much. But this changed things. Like, a lot. So he should tell Luke and Reggie. And Julie. Right?

But he’d promised Carrie he wouldn’t tell Julie she was here. And Lord knows Luke and Reggie can’t keep a secret. And he had a feeling he knew why Carrie had been here, why she’d been acting so weird, why she didn’t want him to tell Julie that she was here even though she’d apparently come over her to see Julie in the first place. So yeah, there was no way he was going to break his promise. His own curiosity be damned.

Alex nodded, gesturing behind him as he lied easily, “Yeah, I just thought I saw a spider.”

Maybe a bit cruel, but it was an effective distraction. Reggie jumped up on the piano, and Luke got to play the hero, spending the next hour looking for something that didn’t exist.

So Alex couldn’t talk to his bandmates about his new discovery, at least not yet. But there was someone he could talk to. Willie. Later that night, as the two walked around the city together, Alex filled him in.

Willie nodded. “Huh. That is weird. No one else has been able to see you when you weren’t playing with Julie?”

Alex shrugged. “I don’t think so.”

“But you were playing drums right before?”

Alex nodded. “Yeah, but people can usually only hear us when we play without Julie, not see us, and definitely not touch us. And even that ends as soon as we stop playing.”

“Have you tested that since the whole magic hug thing?”

Alex stopped, and Willie turned to look at him. “Huh. I guess not.” To be fair, it had only been a few days, and they hadn’t really played without Julie at all since then, unless they knew Ray was out of the house. He nodded as he remembered something. “Yesterday when we rehearsed, Flynn was there, and we were were visible after we stopped playing for a little bit longer than we usually are. But Julie was also there.”

Willie nodded, and the two started walking again. “Maybe you guys are getting more powerful. Or maybe it’s something to do with Carrie. There’s one way to find out.”

The next morning, Alex found himself back at Bobby- Trev- _Carrie_ ’s house. This time, less focused on revenge and more focused on his curiosity, he got a better look around the house. A part of him was still filled with rage at the sight of everything Bobby had that rightfully should have been theirs, but he pushed that down. It wouldn’t do any good to dwell on what could have been. Besides, that wasn’t why he was here.

He made his way to the kitchen, where he saw Carrie pouring herself a glass of orange juice, bopping lightly to music Alex couldn’t hear. When she turned in his direction, he instinctively tried to hide from her, but her eyes passed right over him. She couldn’t see him. He saw that she had those airpod things, he was pretty sure Willie had called them, in her ears.  _ So that’s where the music is coming from. _ When she got closer to him to grab some bread off the counter he was standing next to, he could hear it just barely, but not enough to make out the words or recognize it. It wasn’t her own music, but it felt kind of similar.

He sat down at the island and watched her make herself toast. Maybe it was a little creepy, but Alex could kind of see why Reggie liked to watch Ray so much. There’s something interesting, humanizing, about seeing people when they think they’re alone. It was almost hard to believe that this girl, who was just dancing to herself while spreading peanut butter on toast, was the same girl Julie and Flynn talked about like some kind of demon. Not for the first time, he wondered what had happened between the three girls. While he certainly trusted Julie and Flynn’s judgement, he knew there had to be more to the story.

When Carrie left for school, Alex poofed back into the kitchen where Reggie was predictably watching Ray work. “Hey, man.”

Reggie looked at him with a smile. “Where’ve you been?”

Alex shrugged. “Out.”

Reggie’s smile turned into a smirk. “With Willie?”

Alex looked down, feeling himself blush at the mention of his crush.

Reggie took that as a yes. “I knew it. You can’t keep anything from me.” Alex pushed down his guilt and turned to look at Ray. “How are things going with you two anyway?”

Alex shrugged. “Good. I think.”

“So, in other words, great, but you’re overthinking it.”

Alex chose not to dignify that with a response. “So where’s Luke?”

“His parents’.”

Alex nodded.  _ Of course _ . Alex wasn’t sure it was healthy for Luke to be constantly watching his parents, but it was probably better than his and Reggie’s strategy of avoidance, so he didn’t say anything. Mostly for lack of anything better to do, Alex decided to join Reggie in watching Ray for the day until he left in the afternoon for a photoshoot.

When Luke came back, none of them said anything about where he’d been. They just got started practicing while they waited for Julie to get home from school.

It didn’t take long for them to hear a familiar voice heading in their direction, and they stopped playing as the door opened. “Guys, you aren’t supposed to be playing when Julie’s…” Flynn trailed off, freezing as she looked at the boys. “Not here…” she finished weakly, taking another step into the room and looking around.

The guys shared a look. Alex turned to Flynn and stood up. “Wait, can you see us?”

She just nodded.

“Well, that’s new,” Reggie pointed out.

“Where is Julie?” Luke asked.

“She had to stay late at school to finish a test. She told me to meet her here. But more importantly, why can I see you?” They all shared a look again and then shrugged at Flynn. She took a step toward Reggie and poked him on the arm. “Woah.” They looked at each other with equally shocked expressions.

“So what? We don’t need Julie anymore to be visible?” Reggie asked.

Luke took a step forward. “Of course we still need Julie.”

“Not what he said, Luke,” Alex pointed out.

Luke scrunched up his face, trying to figure out if Alex was right.

Alex shook his head and looked at the others. “So what now?”

As Julie walked toward the studio, she heard music playing and rolled her eyes. Even though her dad wasn’t home, the boys knew they needed to be more careful. But she’d long since given up being surprised by them. She also wasn’t surprised that Flynn was letting them get away with it, but at least she could cover if need be.

She  _ was _ surprised when she opened the door and saw Flynn and Alex dancing together. As though Flynn could see him. And  _ touch _ him. Julie cleared her throat, and they all stopped and looked at her, Luke and Reggie both beaming like excited puppies. “What’s going on?”

Reggie pointed at Flynn. “She can see us!”

Julie raised her eyebrows. “How?”

Reggie shrugged.

Alex stepped forward. “We think that, since the whole magic hug thing, people can see us now when we play, even by ourselves.”

“And for a little while afterward,” Luke added.

“How long?”

“About five minutes,” Flynn answered. “We sort of timed it.”

Julie nodded. “Wow.”

“Right?” Reggie agreed excitedly. Then, his face morphed as a realization dawn on him. “Ooh, I want to tell Ray.”

He put his bass down and started running toward the door, but Julie caught his arm and pulled him back. “Ok, no. We are not telling my dad. He still doesn’t know you’re ghosts, remember?”

Reggie frowned. “Right.”

“Besides, he isn’t home right now.”

Reggie nodded. “Wait, why doesn’t he know we’re ghosts?”

“Because I don’t want him to think I’m crazy,” Julie reminded him.

“But if he can see us now, why would he think you’re crazy?”

And that… was actually a good point. “I’ll… think about it, ok? Can we rehearse now? I got an idea during math class today.”

“Oh, that makes sense now.” Flynn nodded. “For a second there, I thought you were actually taking notes, and I was worried about you.”

Julie smiled and rolled her eyes at her friend before walking passed her toward the piano.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this fic takes place in the same universe as high school musical now, and there's nothing you can do about it. stan the kenny ortega cinematic universe

“Carrie!”

Carrie took a deep breath before plastering a smile on her face and turning to face the 9-year-old girl screaming her name. “Yes?”

“Taylor spilled my juice!” She held up her empty cup as proof.

The 6-year-old boy in question ran up behind his sister crying, “Max hit me!”

“Max, did you hit your brother?”

“He spilled my juice!” she repeated, shaking her cup as if that was all the justification she needed.

Carrie sighed. “Taylor, did you spill Max’s juice?”

“It was an accident.”

Carrie turned to his sister. “Max, you can’t just hit people.”

“But-”

“Max.” She held out her hand to take the cup from her.

Max pouted and handed her the cup.

“Thank you. Now, can you go clean up the juice?”

Max was about to argue again, but Carrie just raised her eyebrow at her, and she turned and ran back to the living room.

Carrie set the cup on the counter and then turned back to Taylor, who still looked upset. “Hey, do you want to help me make lunch?”

He nodded.

She stood up. “Ok, good.” She led him over to the table and helped him up onto one of the chairs. “You have the most important job,” She said very seriously as she pulled out her phone. “I need you to choose the music. Can you do that?” He giggled and nodded. She smiled and handed him her phone, already pulled up to a playlist she’d carefully curated for such occasions. He stuck out his tongue in concentration as he looked through the songs, and she turned around to start making some mac and cheese.

Just as she’d filled the pot with water, she heard a baby crying. She sighed to herself as she set the pot on the stove and turned toward the baby monitor. God, she was going to kill her cousins. She glanced at Taylor to make sure he would be ok for a minute before running to the guest room to check on Ryan, resisting the urge to scream as she did.

It certainly wasn’t the first time Troy and Gabriella had shown up announced and dropped their kids off with her while they hung out with their friends, and Carrie was sure it wouldn’t be the last. What if she’d been busy, huh? Ok, she wasn’t, but she could have been. If Kayla hadn’t been out of town and Nick hadn’t been acting weird ever since they broke up… Maybe it would be bearable if she’d had someone to call for backup, but that wasn’t really an option anymore…

She picked up Ryan from her crib and held her, rocking her back and forth to try to calm her down. “Ok, are you hungry? Is that it?” Of course she got no response other than continued crying. She sighed and brought her out to the kitchen where she could hear the freaking  _ Kidz Bop _ version of  _ ME! _ playing from her phone. (She’d done that to herself, hadn’t she?) As she started preparing Ryan’s baby formula, she noticed that the stove was on. Had she done that? She shook it off as she focused on feeding the crying baby.

She turned to Taylor. “Hey, hon, can you turn the music down, please?”

“But you told me-”

“Just a little bit. For Ryan? Please?”

He nodded and turned it down enough that she could almost hear herself think over the sound of the baby crying. When she finally started feeding Ryan, was blessed with a moment of quiet. She noticed that the water on the stove was boiling, but her hands were kind of full. When, she walked out into the living room, she noticed a red stain on the white carpet. Max had neglected to mention the juice had been spilled on the carpet, but at least it looked like she’d tried to clean it up. Carrie decided that was her dad’s problem now. Max sat on the couch watching some cartoon on the TV.

“Hey, Max, can you do a favor for me?”

Max turned to her and narrowed her eyes. “Depends.”

“Can you feed your sister while I finish making making us lunch?”

“What are you making?”

“Mac and cheese.”

Max seemed skeptical.

“And chicken nuggets,” Carrie added, hoping that would help.

“Are they dinosaur chicken nuggets?”

“Of course,” Carrie answered, even though she wasn’t actually sure.

Max nodded, and Carrie sighed in relief as she handed Ryan off to her.

When she got back in the kitchen, she saw that the noodles had been put in the pot, the now empty mac and cheese boxes sitting next to the stove. Ok, she definitely had not done that.

She turned to Taylor, who was still sitting at the table playing on her phone. “Taylor, did you put the noodles in the water?”

He looked up at her, his eyebrows scrunched together. “No, they did it on their own.”

“What?”

“The boxes opened themselves and poured the noodles out.” He stated it like it was obvious. Like that was just a thing that happened in the real world.

She nodded to herself and decided she was far too exhausted to deal with the implications of that right now. She grabbed a spoon to stir the noodles and then went to open the freezer. Fortunately, there were in fact dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets. So maybe her dad had had more warning than she had that the kids were coming over. She checked the temperature on the bag and then started preheating the oven, knowing full well she should have done this before she started the macaroni, but there was nothing she could do about that now. She got out a cookie sheet and started pouring the nuggets on it.

“Hey, Carrie?”

She turned to Taylor. “Yeah?”

“Where are your friends?”

“What do you mean?”

He shrugged. “Usually when you watch us you have those girls with you. They weren’t here last time either.”

Carrie sighed and sat down at the table next to him. “It’s complicated.”

“How come?”

“Well, Julie and Flynn aren’t my friends anymore.” She could’ve sworn she heard something fall on the ground, but she didn’t see anything when she turned to look.

“How come?” Taylor asked again, causing her to turn back to him.

“Oh. Um… I guess when Julie stopped playing music, we just didn’t really have anything in common anymore. Plus I didn’t really think it was very fair that they let her stay in the music program, so…” She shrugged. Maybe she’d been in not such a great place and had taken it out on Julie, but she really didn’t need to get into that now.

“Oh.”

She heard the sound of the water boiling over on the stove. She stood up and rushed over to it, only to see the heat already being turned down. “What the-” she said to herself and then shook her head. She stirred the noodles until the water went down and then put the chicken nuggets in the oven, figuring it was close enough to preheated. Ok, something weird was officially going on here.

She composed herself and then turned to Taylor, asking him to go join his sisters in the living room.

As soon as he was gone, she turned around the kitchen. “Ok, what is going on here?” She felt a little silly asking that to the open air, but she was losing her mind, and she didn’t know what else to do.

She didn’t get an answer at first, not that she was really expecting one. But then after a second, she heard what sounded like someone tapping their fingers nervously on their leg. The sound seemed to move back and forth and then suddenly a person popped into view in front of her, pacing back and forth in her kitchen. She jumped back, and the noise she made seemed to startle the other person just as much. They stared at each other with wide eyes until she realized she recognized him. “Alex?”

“Um.”

“What are you doing here?”

He shrugged. “Um…”

She shook her head and put up her hand. “Ok, no, better question,  _ how _ are you here?”

“Um.” He swallowed, and she just looked at him expectantly until he finally got some actual words out. “So, basically, long story short. We’re not holograms.”

“We?”

He nodded. “Julie’s band.”

“Right…” She nodded slowly once. “So what are you then?”

“Ghosts, although we prefer the term ‘musician spirits.’”

She almost had to laugh at the absurdity of it all. “So, ‘Julie and the Phantoms’ are actually… phantoms…” She did laugh this time. At least she wasn’t going crazy. Probably. “Who came up with that?”

“Flynn.”

“Of course she did.” She nodded again. “Ok, let’s back up. Why are you here? Have you been here before?”

He looked down, a guilty expression on his face. “Um…” Then he looked over her shoulder, and his eyes went wide. “Water’s boiling over again.”

She spun around. “Shit.” She picked the pot up off the stove and stirred it with the spoon. Alex rushed over to help her, grabbing a strainer out of the dish rack and putting in the sink, so she could drain the noodles. “Thanks.” She smiled in relief before realizing how weird this whole thing was. “Now, can we get back to my question? How many times have you been in my house?” she asked as she walked over to the fridge to grab milk and butter.

“Right. Um, a couple of times?”

“That’s so creepy, dude.” She didn’t look over at him as she continued cooking.

“I know. I’m sorry. I just…” He sat down, tapping his fingers on the counter. “Ok, so, the first time we may have kind of been haunting your dad?” She raised an eyebrow at him. “It’s a long story.”

She briefly wondered if that was related to her dad acting weird lately, especially whenever Julie’s band came up. She decided to file that away for later. “Ok… But this time it’s just you?”

He nodded. “Yeah…”

“Why?”

“Ok, so, this is gonna sound weird, but when a ghost walks through a lifer, a living person, we can kind of like feel their souls? If that makes sense?” She nodded, even though it didn’t really. “And usually I just ignore it cause I don’t like it and it feels like an invasion of privacy, and when it happened with you, I didn’t really think much of it at first.”

“Wait, when did that happen?” She felt like she deserved to know that someone had walked through her body and ‘felt her soul.’

He blushed. “Right. Um, remember when you performed  _ All Eyes on Me _ ?” She nodded. “Well, I was there, and, I don’t know, it’s like I was kind of drawn to the stage, almost the same way the band is whenever Julie performs, and no one could see me except the other guys and Julie, but I kind of just started dancing with you?”

“And at some point during that, you walked through me?”

He nodded. “A couple times actually.”

She was pretty sure she remembered that. She’d been busy focusing on dancing, but there had been a couple moments when she’d suddenly gotten this weird feeling in her chest… And there had been that moment when her wig kind of moved up in a way that couldn’t quite be chalked up to the way she was dancing. “Ok…” She finished up the mac and cheese and moved it further back on the stove before turning to face him properly. “So you felt my soul? What does that mean?”

He nodded. “It’s kind of hard to explain. Um, when Julie’s dad walked through Reggie, he said he could tell he had a good heart, and he’s basically been following him around like a lost puppy ever since. I didn’t get it at first, but now… When it happened with you, I didn’t really think much of it at first, but then later when you came over to Julie’s, and you could see me, and you could touch me, and I had no idea what that meant, I just started thinking about you more, and I remembered how when you were dancing, you felt so alive and somehow I could tell that you have a good heart, and I remembered seeing your house and how big and lonely it felt, and I guess I just wanted to come check up on you and maybe get to know you or something? I don’t know…” He trailed off.

She nodded. That was almost sweet. Almost. “But you see how that’s still creepy, right? Like, I didn’t consent to you being here and watching me without me knowing.”

He winced and nodded. “Yeah, I know. I’m sorry. I won’t do it again, I promise.”

“Good.” She would have said more, but she was interrupted by the sound of a child yelling for her. She closed her eyes and sighed. “I’m going to kill those two,” she said to herself before turning to go into the living room.

“Please don’t kill the children,” Alex called after her.

“I was talking about their parents!” She called back.

When she reached the living room, she crossed her arms and asked, “What happened?”

“Taylor changed the TV,” Max complained.

Carrie looked at the TV to see a different cartoon playing than had been before. Whatever it was, Taylor seemed fully engrossed in it. She knelt down in front of Max, who still had a now sleeping baby in her lap. “Hey, we’re going to have lunch in a few minutes. Is it ok if he watches his show just until then, and then after lunch, we can do something you want to do?”

She bit her lip, contemplating it for a minute, before she nodded.

Carrie let out a breath of relief. “Ok, thank you. I’m going to put Ryan back to bed, ok?”

Max nodded again, and Carrie took the baby from her. “Can I get some more juice?” she asked.

Carrie nodded as she stood up. “Yeah, just take Ryan’s bottle with you.” She started to walk away, and then she stopped when she remembered. “Oh, and my friend Alex might be in there. Ask him to help you, ok?”

Max nodded and ran off to the kitchen.

Once she got Ryan back in her crib in the guest bedroom, she went back to the kitchen to see Max sitting at the table drinking a cup of juice and Alex pulling the chicken nuggets out of the oven, smiling at whatever Max was talking about.

Carrie smiled at them. “Lunch ready?” She asked.

Alex nodded. “I think so.”

She walked over to him and said, “Thank you,” as she stepped around him to grab plates from the cupboard next to him. “Are you going to be joining us, Alex?”

“Oh. Um, I don’t exactly eat,” he said quietly.

“Oh. Right.” She grabbed three plates and then turned to set them on the table. “Max, can you go tell your brother that lunch is ready?”

Max hopped off her chair and ran back to the living room.

Carrie sighed and sat down. Alex started serving the food. “You don’t have to do that,” she said.

He shrugged. “It’s fine.” He set a plate of food in front of her and grabbed the next one. “You know, I wouldn’t have pegged you as being good with kids.”

“I’m not.”

“I don’t know. I think you’re doing alright.” He grabbed the next plate.

She huffed. “They’re good kids.” Speak of the devils, they both came running into the room. “Most of the time,” She muttered to herself. Alex must have heard her though, cause he smiled as he set the last plate on the table. “Kids, wash your hands first.” She turned to Alex. “There should be a stool for them under the sink.”

He nodded and got it out. It was pink and had princess designs on it. They both tried standing on it together to wash their hands as Alex went over to the fridge to get out condiments. “What sauces do people want on their nuggets?”

“The kids will just want ketchup. I’ll take barbecue sauce.” He nodded and grabbed them. When he set them on the table, she thanked him and then pointed toward the silverware drawer. “Can you grab forks? Make sure to get the plastic ones for the kids.” He nodded again and did as she asked.

The kids came over and sat in their seats. Alex helped push them in before sitting in the empty seat across from Carrie. She put a little bit of ketchup on each of the kids’ plates and handed them each a napkin before she put sauce on her own plate and started eating.

“So, since when are chicken nuggets shaped like dinosaurs?” Alex asked.

Carrie nearly choked on her food, and the kids giggled.

“They’ve always been shaped like dinosaurs,” Max answered.

“Back in my day, they were shaped like blobs, and that was good enough for us.”

“What are you, like 40?” Max asked.

Alex smiled and said in a deadpan voice, “I’m 42 actually.”

The kids both just giggled, but Carrie raised her eyebrow and wondered if that was true. Were these guys in Julie’s band her dad’s age? That was so weird. How did that even happen? She was going to have to ask him a million questions as soon as she could get him alone without having to worry about the kids.

Taylor held a nugget out to Alex. “Do you want one? Dino nuggies are better.”

Alex smiled and shook his head. “No thanks. I’m, um, I’m a vegetarian.”

“What does that mean?” Taylor asked.

“It means he only eats vegetables,” Max explained. “Like Carrie’s dad.”

Taylor frowned and then pushed himself out of his chair and ran over to the fridge. Carrie and Alex shared a look, but she decided she wanted to see where this was going. He came back with a carrot, and it took all of Carrie’s self control to stop herself from laughing as he offered it to the ghost.

Alex laughed nervously as he took it and set it on the table in front of him. “Thank you. But I’m not actually hungry right now.”

Taylor frowned again. “Oh.”

“Taylor, why don’t you eat your own food, ok? Alex can take care of himself.”

Taylor nodded and went back to his seat to finish eating.

Carrie quickly changed the subject by asking Max what she wanted to do after this.

“Can we dance?”

“Of course we can.” Carried glanced at Alex with a smile. “You know, Alex enjoys dancing, too. Maybe he could join us?”

Max turned to him excitedly, and Alex grinned back. “I would be honored.”


	4. Chapter 4

“You’re late,” was the first thing Alex heard when he poofed back into the garage. Julie had her arms crossed.

“I’m sorry,” Alex immediately apologized. “I lost track of time.”

“Were you with Willie?” Reggie teased from where he was lying on the couch, his bass across his chest.

Alex blushed. “Um…” _ Well, no. _

But Reggie seemed to take that as a yes, smirking at him and sharing a look with Luke. Alex decided not to correct him.

“Whatever.” Luke picked up his guitar. “Can we rehearse now?”

Alex nodded and moved to sit behind his drumset.

Later, Alex found himself knocking on Julie’s door before he could talk himself out of it. She told him to come in, so he did, nervously twisting his ring around his finger as she looked up at him from where she was doing homework on her bed.

“What’s up?” He didn’t answer at first. Maybe this was a bad idea. Yeah, he should just leave right now. “Alex? Are you ok?”

He nodded and took a step closer to her. He took a deep breath and looked at her to see that she had moved her homework out of the way and was now giving him her full attention. He nodded once more to himself, deciding to start with the easy part. “I’m sorry I was late to rehearsal today.”

Julie gave him a small smile. “Hey, it’s ok. I get it.” Her smile turned teasing. “You wanted to spend time with your boyfriend.”

“We’re not- ok.” He shook his head. “I wasn’t with Willie, actually.”

“Oh. Where were you then?”

“Um… I was at Carrie’s house.”

Julie looked taken aback. “Carrie… Wilson?” He nodded. She narrowed her eyes. “You weren’t trying to get back at her dad again, were you?” He shook his head. Now, she was just confused. Which was understandable. “Then, why?”

He rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “Um… me and Carrie were kind of hanging out?”

She blinked a couple times. “Hanging out. You and Carrie were hanging out. Like, the way Reggie likes to hang out with my dad? Or?”

He shrugged. “At first, yeah, kind of.”

“At first?” He nodded. “But…”

He shrugged again. “But then she kind of… saw me?”

Her eyebrows shot up. “What?”

“It was an accident! At first I was just trying to help her out because she was babysitting her cousins, and she seemed overwhelmed, but then I guess she noticed, and I started freaking out, and I was tapping my leg, you know, which I guess is close enough to music because suddenly she could see me!”

“What’d she do?”

“Well, she was kind of freaked out at first, so I kind of had to tell her.”

“You told her you’re a ghost.” He nodded. “How’d she take that?”

He shrugged. “Surprisingly chill?”

“And the kids?”

“They weren’t in the room at the time. Carrie just told them I was her friend.”

She nodded slowly. “Ok… And then what? You just hung out with them?”

“Yeah, like I said, she seemed kind of overwhelmed with the kids, and the one, Max, kind of reminded me of my little sister, so…” In appearance, they were polar opposites of course, but in personality, they could almost be twins. It was a little jarring actually. But the way Max had pulled him along to dance with her reminded him so much of Avery, he almost started crying.

Julie’s face softened. “Oh. I didn’t know you had a sister.”

He nodded. “Two, actually. Annie and Avery. Annie was older.” He looked down. “Although, I guess Avery would be older than me now too.”

Julie held out her hand. “Come here.” He walked over and took her hand, relieved when they were actually able to make contact. She pulled him down, so he was sitting next to her. “You know, if you ever want me to help you find your family…”

“I know. I don’t know if I’m ready for that yet.”

She nodded. “I get that.” After a few seconds, she turned to him and asked, “So, you and Carrie?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. Ever since I got on stage with  _ Dirty Candi _ when they did  _ All Eyes On Me _ , it’s like I’ve been drawn to her or something. And I know she’s been awful to you, and I get if you don’t want me to hang out with her-”

She squeezed his hand. “Hey. I get it. I was her friend once too, remember? I know her. I know she can be fun and nice and cool. But I also know how cruel she can be, and I don’t want to see you get hurt. Especially after what her dad did to you.”

He nodded. “I know.”

She bumped their shoulders together. “But hey, if it makes you feel any better, she hasn’t been as mean lately at school.”

He looked at her. “Really?”

She shrugged. “Yeah, she hasn’t talked to me at all really the past few weeks. I think she even smiled at me the other day?” She shook her head. “I don’t know. I don’t know if it means anything. But if you want to be her friend, I’m not going to stop you. I think it’s kind of cute you have a squish on her.”

“A what?”

“A squish. It’s kind of like a crush, but platonic.”

“Oh. Hey, can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“What happened between you two?”

Julie sighed. “It’s a long story.”

“I’m sorry. You don’t have to-”

“No, it’s fine. It’s just. There wasn’t really a big fight or anything. I think we started drifting apart sometime in middle school when I started getting closer to Flynn. The two of them never really got along. They were always weirdly competitive. I don’t know. And then she started  _ Dirty Candi _ the summer before high school without telling us, and it was weird. Like, we totally would have been supportive, you know? But she just kept it from us for months. And when I asked her about it, she got weirdly defensive and made a comment about how Flynn and I had  _ Double Trouble _ , even though that wasn’t, like, a real band or anything. It was just the two of us messing around.” She paused for a second, taking a deep breath before she continued. “And then my mom died. And Carrie just wasn’t there. I know I kind of shut everyone out for a while, but Carrie didn’t even try. Flynn was the only one who was really there for me, you know? And when I went back to school, and I couldn’t even think about music without having a breakdown, Mrs. Harrison was so understanding, and everyone else just kind of pitied me, but Carrie was angry almost? Like, at first she didn’t say anything, but with each time I went in front the class to play and couldn’t do it, she got more and more rude about it. She kept making comments about how I didn’t deserve to be in the program. And maybe she was right, but it hurt.”

“Hey, she wasn’t right. You belong in the music program,” Alex tried to reassure her. He couldn’t imagine a world in which Julie Molina wasn’t playing music.

“Maybe now, but I didn’t play for a whole year, Alex. Any other teacher wouldn’t have given me as many chances as Mrs. Harrison did. But whatever. Things are better now.”

“Did you ever talk to her about it?”

She shook her head. “How could I? She just decided to start hating me.”

He nodded. “Yeah…” He snorted lightly. “I guess betraying their friends must run in the family.”

She laughed and leaned against him. “Yeah, you better watch out for Max and Taylor.”

“I think Ryan’s the one we’ll have to watch out for actually,” Alex joked.

“Ryan?”

“The baby. Sure, she’s cute, but she also had a tendency to start crying at the worst possible moments.”

“That’s just what babies do, Alex.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe they named her after Nick’s dad.”

“Nick’s dad?”

She nodded. “Ryan Evans. He’s kind of a famous choreographer. Their family is friends with Carrie’s family. He gave Carrie private dance lessons when she was a kid. That’s how she met Nick.” Alex nodded, but he barely heard anything after the first sentence. “You ok?”

“I had a cousin named Ryan Evans.”

“Oh. Well, that’s not exactly an uncommon name, right?”

“Yeah. Yeah, and he and his family lived in New Mexico. I only saw them once or twice a year. I think he and his sister would have been like five when I died.” He shrugged. Like it wasn’t a big deal.

Julie froze. Apparently his attempts to convince her (and himself) that this was just a weird coincidence were not working. “Alex, what was his sister’s name?”

“Sharpay.” Certainly less common than Ryan.

“Oh my god.”

“What?”

“You and Nick are cousins!”

“What?!”

Shen nodded quickly. “His aunt’s name is Sharpay. They’re from New Mexico. And I think the math works out.”

He shook his head. “That can’t be right. He wouldn’t be old enough to have a 16-year-old kid.” He’d be what? 30?

She shook her head. “Alex, Nick is adopted. And I’m pretty sure his dads are like, weirdly young. This can’t be a coincidence. Oh, this is weird. That makes Nick your second cousin. Oh god, I had a crush on your cousin.” Her hands flew to her face, and she groaned into them. “Oh my god.”

Ordinarily, Alex would be teasing her right now, but he was just too shocked. His sisters and parents he was still too scared to look for, but two cousins he barely knew and hadn’t thought of in years? And one of them had a kid who was Julie’s age?  _ Wait. Hold on. _ “Did you say dads?”

Julie looked up at him. “Oh. Yeah. Nick’s dads. Ryan and Chad. I don’t really know them, but they seem cool.” He just kept starring at her. She seemed to realize why because suddenly a teasing smile appeared on her face. “What? You thought you were the only gay cousin?”

He looked away and after a second asked softly, “Do you know if their family is, like, cool with that?”

She softened. “Honestly, I have no idea. I’ve never heard Nick say a bad thing about anyone in his family, but we don’t really know each other like that.” She nudged him with her shoulder. “You could ask your new best friend. Carrie’s known Nick longer, and she adores Ryan and Sharpay. Plus, her dad’s cousins are like really close to them, so they might know something. If you want. I know you said you didn’t want to find your family yet, so…”

He nodded. “Yeah. Thanks, Julie.”

She smiled at him and squeezed his hand. “Anytime. You know I love you, Alex.”

He nodded again. “Yeah. I love you too, Julie.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> of course i'm going with nick danforth-evans with a bonus alex as ryan's cousin cause why not


End file.
